Real Kato Blog: College Football Recap

N.C. State 0, Maryland 37. Also, BCS insights, and more Michigan coaching news.

N.C. State 0, Maryland 37. Poo. The first year of the great Tom O'Brien coaching era fizzles to a lackluster 5-7 finish. The story of this game? 10 yards rushing for N.C. State.

Ah well. We'll give Tom a few years to recruit and rebuild the team in his image.

BCS Insights

Well well well. #1 LSU loses to Arkansas in triple overtime, 50-48. Some folks still think LSU is the most dominant team in the country, but eek... maybe play a little defense? Yeah, it went to triple overtime, but Arkansas rushed for 385 freaking yards. A lot of the time, Arkansas didn't even have a quarterback in the game; they just snapped it to Darren McFadden and ran the option. So much for SEC defensive speed.

Meanwhile, in the blockbuster match of the weekend, #2 Kansas lost to #4 Missouri, 36-28. Kansas was dominated for much of the game, but made it interesting late.

So let's look at the BCS top ten now:

1. Missouri (11-1)
2. West Virginia (10-1)
3. Ohio State (11-1)
4. Georgia (10-2)
5. Kansas (11-1)
6. Virginia Tech (10-2)
7. LSU (10-2)
8. USC (9-2)
9. Oklahoma (10-2)
10. Florida (9-3)

For Missouri and West Virginia, it's simple: win, and you're in the BCS title game; lose, and you're out.

If one of the teams loses, then the other will play Ohio State. Ohio State doesn't have many quality wins to point to, but hey, this year, it's a war of attrition.

The interesting thing is if both Missouri and West Virginia lose. Who becomes the most worthy opponent for Ohio State?

- Georgia is playing great right now... but can you put them in the title game if they didn't even win their conference?

- Same goes for Kansas... even if Missouri loses, how can you put Kansas ahead of them?

- Virginia Tech got clobbered by LSU early in the season. Voters aren't likely to forget that.

- LSU? It's possible they could still back into the title game, but losing late in the season to an unranked team is hard to swallow.

- With Booty healthy, USC is probably as good as any team in the country right now... but they did lose to Stanford, who is 3-8, including a loss to Notre Dame.

- Oklahoma could vault a few spots with a win over Missouri in the Big 12 championship. But it's a long way to climb from #9 to #2.

- Florida? Three losses. Forget it.

I think the matchup I'd most want to see right now is West Virginia versus USC.

As far as the four at-large BCS bids: Georgia is a lock to get one, and Hawaii another. The other two are a little up in the air. Kansas may get a bid, or possibly Arizona State. But Illinois might be a surprise pick... if Oklahoma beats Missouri, the Fiesta Bowl might want to avoid a Kansas-Oklahoma matchup. If Illinois does go, that means Michigan might move up all the way to the Outback bowl, to face Tennesee... or even, just maybe, LSU. Wouldn't THAT be a hoot!

Michigan Coaching News

Well, more rumor than news... MGoBlog has a source that indicates Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz may have been offered the Michigan job.

Ferentz is pretty far down my list, mainly for results of the last three seasons (6-6 in 2007, 6-7 in 2006, 7-5 in 2005). And Ferentz is 3-6 against in-state rival Iowa State, a team that Iowa should beat year after year, given the disparity in talent levels. Ferentz does run a very Michigan-like program... but maybe we need a more radical change?

I've often said that I don't want to see a 1-AA style spread offense here in Ann Arbor. But thinking about Ryan Mallett in 2008... I know that he'd feel very much at home in a pass-oriented spread offense, getting shotgun snaps, and having some room to freelance. Just a thought.

There are a lot of coaching changes coming to a lot of major programs:

- Michigan's Lloyd Carr retires
- Nebraska's Bill Callahan is fired
- Texas A&M's Dennis Franchione is forced to resign
- Georgia Tech's Chan Gailey is fired
- Arkansas' Houston Nut resigns
- Colorado State's Sonny Lubick retires
- Mississippi's Ed Orgeron is fired
- Southern Miss' Jeff Bower is fired
- Duke's Ted Roof is fired

Something tells me that Bo Pelini and Brian Kelly are getting a lot of phone calls right now. And who knows... Ron English might get a shot coaching Northern Illinois or something.

Permalink 1 Comment

Posted by Ken in: sports

Comments

Comment #1 from Brett (Guest)
2007 Nov 29 - 10:45 am : #

Let's also not forget that Iowa took a drubbing from Western Michigan University just a few short weeks ago.

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